The Virtual Toad Choir Presents: SILENT NIGHT

warm bread with butter. reblog if you Agree

Another day of successfully making stranger cries on the internet

Hey also you know that post about getting better at cooking and handling meat and stuff?

Meat is really expensive and it goes bad pretty quickly.

If you're a new cook and you're trying to figure out how to pan-fry something so that it tastes good, might I recommend tofu?

I'm not saying "treat tofu like meat and try to replace all your favorite meat dishes with tofu" (though, I mean, if that sounds good - go for it), I'm saying "it's a lot easier to practice heating a pan and flipping objects in a pan for a meal and seasoning objects in a pan when the objects in the pan cost two dollars instead of ten dollars."

Tofu lasts a lot longer in the fridge than meat does, is easy to season, and you can easily learn how to pan-fry it into a tasty snack (or main course) and only requires a little extra prep. You can also pretend that the tofu is raw meat (the texture isn't dissimilar) and start practicing for things like how to take it out of a package or cut it on a sanitizable surface, etc.

My favorite way to cook tofu is to press extra firm tofu for at least half an hour (you can get a cheap tofu press for around ten dollars, or you can put it between two plates with some books on the top plate - this is that extra prep i was talking about - tofu cooks best if you press the excess water out), then slice a 14oz cake of it into 8 slices. I lay these flat and sprinkle cayenne pepper, mushroom powder, and smoked paprika on all of the slices, then I rub it in and flip the slices and season the other side the same way. I cook it in a frying pan with a thin layer of avocado or olive oil over medium heat, flipping every two minutes until the flat sides start to crisp up a little. Just before the last flip I add about a tablespoon of tamari sauce (you can use soy sauce, I've just got allergies) to the pan, sprinkling it over the tofu so that both sides get a little bit of sauce on them.

I have that with steamed vegetables and with jasmine rice (with two teaspoons of rice wine vinegar per 3 cups of dry rice and 4.5 cups of water). I also make a honey-siracha-mayo sauce that I dip the tofu in.

It's really good. And now I end up eating leftover rice and sauce with fried eggs for lunch at least two days a week and that's also really good.

This has become one of my go-to low spoon foods because it's so easy to make, it's filling, it tastes good to me, and it has become extremely easy for me to keep a stock of tofu in the fridge compared to the effort of keeping un-expired meat in the fridge.

I find that a 14oz pack of tofu feeds two adults for one meal, though I can stretch that to three meals if I'm the only one eating.

It makes a very cheap, filling, easy dinner that I can keep the ingredients around for without too much concern for food waste or anything going bad (the tofu that I get lasts about a month in the fridge and these days I just buy three packs every time I'm at aldi and cycle in new stock - it costs $1.50 per pack)

If you're interested in becoming a better cook, rather than worrying about actual high-risk products like raw chicken that can be seriously dangerous and also cost a fair amount, tofu has a pretty low barrier to entry while also being a good way to learn on a new ingredient that has some similar properties to raw meat.

Ninja squad line up!

Notes under the cut

Lloyd's oni/dragon features are fluid! His eyes are usually, as mrsnaildood said, Spotify green but they'll turn red the more tired he is. His fingers and toes are smudged but not as dark as his dad.

Jay is completely blind in his left eye, and has a lot of Lichtenberg scars up that side of his body. He could probably lightning bend like ATLA and pass the lighting through his body instead of being the lightning rod. He and Nya have the most actual metal armor of the group! His straps are attached to like, a little backpack or something.

Kai has poor vision in the eye opposite Jay! He still has light perception and near sight, but far sight is blurry and his depth perception isn't the best. Half of his shirts have low necklines because he paid for this flat chest and he is going to make it your problem. He has burn marks up both arms. He usually has eyeliner! I forgot it! Just realized that now!

Nya has a tiny bit of sectoral heterochromia after Seabound in her left eye. Her armor and outfit lean more towards her Samarui X look than they do her water ninja look, and she's got red accents to tie in with Kai. The gold-blue helps separate her from Jay's silver-blue and is intentional.

Cole's rift mark makes his left eye green! I like heterochromia, I can't help it. His arms, legs, and chest have stretch marks, and his earth punch ability follows the lines of it. I don't have a lot of notes for Cole, he's perfect as is honestly. He's got an allergy to sleeves (finding clothes that actually fit him problems).

Zane's got some different metal colors for some fun visual design. It's just for that. His human cloak is optional like Lloyd's but it's something he actively has to do as opposed to his natural form. Subscribes to the Nindroid one tit out look. His "heart" is mostly just for aesthetic purposes, like all the other glowy bits of his skin. His hair is probably some form of like, silicone? Like stim brushes texture.

And that's all my notes! Probably

ITS THIS THING TUESDAY

Sam said he has blue hair and pronouns